Worry not, because although it may be winter, you can still release that BarbeSkew from under its cover or out of the shed! Yes a barbecue grill with a rotisserie is the way forward for healthier eating. It’s not all about beef burgers, sausages and ribs.

If your first thoughts are high-calorie, high-fat sausages and burgers – don’t fret! Chicken, fish, vegetables and even fruit are delicious cooked on the BarbeSkew!

So don’t be afraid to get your Charcoal BBQ out now, even if you find it is cold – don’t let the snow stop you either! The luxury of the Charcoal BBQ is that it does the work for you using the rotisserie method! Let it lovingly rotate your food, whilst you wait in the warm.

Here are a few recipes to help tantalise the old taste buds!!

This easy barbecue recipe is great for vegetarians

Halloumi, aubergine and red pepper kebabs is easy barbecue recipe that’s perfect for vegetarians – although meat eaters will love these too.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4
4tbsp groundnut oil
2 heaped tbsp harissa (spicy Moroccan paste, available from supermarkets)
1 large red pepper, halved, seeds removed and cut into 12 equal-sized cubes
1 large aubergine, halved and each half cut into 12 equal-sized cubes
3 Brush all the vegetables evenly with the harissa and oil mixture. Place the skewers in the holes where the rear skewer rack is located for approximately 10 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked and the cheese is hot and oozing.
Per serving: 280cals, 24g fat, 10g saturated fat, 10g carbohydrate
Top tip: Cooking with halloumi
Sweetcorn cob cooked on the BBQ is delicious and acquires a taste unobtainable with any other form of cooking. Pre-boil them until just tender, to keep them juicy and speed up cooking time on the “BBQ”. Then, cut the cob in half to make it easier to skewer them. Skewer two per kebab skewer. Place them directly on the grill and turn until golden brown on the outside. Resist the temptation for lashings of butter – you won’t need it!
Beets not just for borscht (Ukrainian Beetroot Soup)
Preparing beets
Tough-yet-tender aubergine and courgette
Preparing aubergine
Courgette

You will need 7-9 short kebab skewers

1 x 200g packet halloumi cheese, cut into 16 large cubes

1 Mix together the oil and harissa.

2 Take a kebab skewer and thread on the first a piece of pepper, then aubergine, followed by a piece of halloumi. Repeat, then add another piece of pepper and aubergine at the end. Repeat with all the skewers until all the vegetables and cheese are used.

Per serving: 280cals, 24g fat, 10g saturated fat, 10g carbohydrate

Top tip: Cooking with halloumi

Halloumi, traditionally from Cyprus or Greece, is made from sheep’s or goat’s milk. It’s brine-cured but not as salty as feta. The stringy, mozzarella-like texture makes it ideal for grilling, but cut it into thickish chunks and keep an eye on it whilst rotating. It holds its shape for a fair while, but when it “goes”, it really goes! So pack your veggies on tight to help stem them in place and to stop them falling off.

Kebabs

Tofu is a popular vegetarian substitute for meat, which is very easy to cube and ideal for kebabs! Alternatively look out for cubed chicken breast, prawns or lean meats. The beauty with kebabs is that your imagination is your limit – most vegetables, and some fruits too, are delicious combined with tofu, poultry, seafood or meat.

Try cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, peppers, courgette or aubergine (cut into ¼ inch cubes), pineapple chunks, apple slices… whatever takes your fancy! Simply put your chosen combination onto skewers, brush with a little olive oil, or find a reduced calorie marinade, and place the skewers in the rear skewer rack and leave the barbecue grill to rotate the kebabs for you, whilst you wait inside in the warm whilst it cooks!

Vegetable Kebabs

Try vegetable kebabs, peppers, mushrooms, courgette, aubergine, any of your favourite vegetables, skewer them, wipe with teriyaki sauce or something else you like, and stick them on the rotisserie until ready.

Marinated Chicken

4 chicken breasts cut into chunks, 2 tablespoons clear honey, 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce, juice & zest of one lime, 2 cloves of garlic. Mix up all marinade ingredients, stir in chicken pieces, leave overnight then skewer them on the kebab skewers. Place them on the rear skewer rack and leave to cook on the rotisserie till ready. This should only take 15-20 mins. Always check the meat is cooked all the way through, before you remove them off the barbecue grill.

Monkfish Kebabs

Monkfish is very meaty so doesn’t flake and fall apart on the barbeque like other fish. It was very simple: monkfish cubes interspersed with chunks of ripe mango, with a little oil drizzled over plus the juice of one lime. Delicious!”

Simply Salmon

Salmon makes a great alternative to meat. Place a whole fillet onto a sheet of foil large enough to make a parcel. Slice half a lemon and layer over the top of the salmon, squeeze the other half over the fish, season and wrap the foil to make a make a generous parcel and refrigerate overnight (to allow the flavours to fuse). It’s up to you whether you remove the salmon from the foil or not, before placing on the charcoal bbq. Place them in the cage skewer and then cook on the BarbeSkew for about 10 minutes – depending on thickness of fillet. This is delicious served with natural, low fat yoghurt, salad and crusty bread.

Low-Fat Garlic Mushrooms

Take a large square of tin foil, spray with a light cooking spray, add some sliced mushrooms, a clove of crushed garlic, freshly milled salt and pepper and wrap up in a parcel. Place the parcel in the cage skewer on the Charcoal bbq for about 15-20 minutes. Serve with French bread lightly toasted on the BBQ.

Hot Corn

The adventurous amongst you can try the traditional Mexican option which involves rubbing the hot, cooked corn in chilli powder. Warning: HOT!

Grilled Asparagus

Asparagus is said to be a delicacy and barbequed asparagus is no exception! Simply take a bunch, trim the bottoms, toss in a tbsp of olive oil and season with freshly milled salt and pepper. Pop on the charcoal bbq BarbeSkew for 2-3 minutes or until to desired tenderness – tasty indeed!!

Marinated Aubergines

Slice an aubergine length ways into just under 1/2 cm slices. Marinate them for about an hour in a small amount of olive oil (1 tsp), some nice vinegar (eg. red wine, balsamic), lemon juice and some chopped herbs. Place them in the cage skewer and cook well. When ready they should be crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle. If you’re having an okay calorie day top with a small amount of crumbled feta cheese.

Potatoes

Jacket potatoes on the rotisserie is one of the easiest things to cook on the barbecue grill. Simply brush them with olive oil and then rub rock salt all over them. Then using the large long skewer, skewer each potato. You should be able to get four to five medium sized jackets on one long skewer.

They should take approximately 45 mins. If you want to speed things up, then you can par-boil the potatoes before placing them on the barbecue grill. This will increase cooking time. Also by par-boiling it means they’ll be easier to skewer.

New potatoes are also brilliant on the BBQ. Boil the new potatoes until just tender, then drain, toss with a tiny touch of olive oil (1tbsp for four portions), garlic, salt and pepper (rosemary if available) – then using the short kebab skewers, skewer each potato. Then place the skewers in the rear skewer rack, and let the rotisserie do all the work!! You’ll end up with delicious roasties!

On the Side

One of the best things about a barbeque is the variety of foods on offer – so don’t limit this simply to what you cook on the charcoal grill. A bit of pre-planning will ensure a healthy choice of accompaniments, steer clear of supermarket coleslaw and potato salad (these are laced with fat) – but if you must, check out the low fat alternatives.

Try a fresh mixed salad with a reduced fat/calorie dressing, some freshly boiled rice (toss in some pineapple, mushrooms… use that imagination!) and some fresh bread – there’s some delightful wholemeal and granary varieties available.

For a side salad try cous cous with roasted veg, garlic & herbs – can be cooked in advance and kept for a day or two

For Dessert

Fruit kebabs are ideal on the barbecue grill! Pop some bananas (in their skins) skewered using the short kebab skewers for about 10 minutes. When you peel them you’ll have a delicious gooey banana dessert!

“Peaches and nectarines sliced are very good too – serve with some fat free yoghurt”

Beets not just for borscht (Ukrainian Beetroot Soup)

What to do with the humble beet? Once you get past the tough skin of this bulbous root vegetable, it has a sweet, earthy taste that’s worth the preparation. If you can prepare a potato, then you can prepare a beet.

Why beets? They are a good source of folate and are rich in potassium, which can help with blood pressure control. Beets are also a good source of dietary fibre and are low in calories. Look for firm, smooth-skinned small- to medium-size globes with crisp, brightly coloured, unblemished leaves.

Preparing Beets

Wrap whole beets, greens removed, skewer them on the long skewer and allow the rotisserie to rotate them until cooked all the way through!

Don’t let the beet greens go to waste. Wash them thoroughly and chop the leaves and stems into bite-sized pieces and place in a covered glass pot with some water on the bottom for steaming on the stove-top. Steam until tender, drain and add a little butter, if you like, a hit of salt and pepper, and some fresh lemon. Zing.

Tough-yet-tender Aubergine and Courgette

Though thought of as veggies, aubergine and courgette are actually fruits. These late-summer goodies can add colour, tender texture, and variety to your usual dinner routine. Bonus: The skins of both courgette and aubergine are edible, so no peeling is required.

Preparing Aubergine

Among other nutrients, aubergine will add calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorous to your diet. Choose aubergines that are shiny, plump, firm and unwrinkled — definitive signs of freshness. The fruit should feel heavy for its size, indicating good moisture content.

Slice aubergine lengthwise or into medallions. Lightly coat slices with a bit of olive oil and place in the cage skewers. Keep your eye on them to avoid charring, which causes the formation of carcinogens, and grill until tender. Rotisserie cooking brings out aubergine’s natural flavour, so it’s good right off the barbecue. Add a bit of Parmesan or feta cheese for a yummy contrast in flavour.

Preparing Courgette

Courgette, a type of summer squash, is low in calories and offers a healthy dose of folate, a B vitamin important for the formation of red blood cells, and perhaps best known for its role in preventing birth defects, along with potassium and vitamins A and C. Courgette also contains beta carotene and all types of summer squash provide small quantities of minerals.

Look for smaller bright-coloured courgettes when you’re shopping; they’re younger and have more tender skins. Prepare them the same way you’d prepare aubergine. You can also shred courgettes and toss it with hot pasta to add colour, nutrition and bulk.

Finally I read this article on the net and found it for interesting reading. Just shows that according to this article – Barbecue Sauce has Health Benefits!!

So remember that barbecuing can be a better alternative way of eating healthily! Especially when using the BarbeSkew, which rotates the food and ensures the meat and vegetables are cooked all the way through, without fear of charring the food with dangerous carcinogens.

Also when compared to frying food in fat in a frying pan, cooking on the BarbeSkew BBQ means the fat drops off the food ensuring there is less fat content overall making the food healthier and better for your diet!

And barbecues are no different to anything else.

BarbeSkew is one of the only British barbecue grill manufacturers and it has capitalised on having a great British innovative design using rotisserie turners to ensure the food is rotated so it doesn’t burn.

The BarbeSkew was featured on Dragons’ Den and is the only rotisserie gas bbq of its kind in the world. Chefs like Jamie Oliver are at the forefront of recommending that the best barbecued food is cooked on a rotisserie barbecue, and this is because as the food rotates the food self-bastes allowing the extra juices and moisture in the food to absorb the barbecue smoke – giving an awesome authentic barbecue flavour.

As consumers venture to buy their new barbecue from their local garden centres, there are an abundance of foreign barbecues and of course when people buy these foreign barbecues, the profits made go back to their host countries. So with Weber the profits go to the United States, with Napoleon the profits go to Canada, and believe it or not with Outback the profits go to Taiwan!

Available also as a charcoal bbq in two different sizes, the BarbeSkew exceeds the high quality expectations demanded by the British public. With profits being retained in the UK, it makes the BarbeSkew the best choice of barbecue grill to buy in these times of economic recession.

So this year, when it comes to choosing your gas bbq or charcoal bbq, Support Britain, Buy British.

Cooking Food Using the BBQ Cage Skewers

For the larger BarbeSkew BBQ’s, you can fit around 6 or 7 quarter pound beef-burgers in each bbq cage skewer (around 4 in each BarbeSkew II bbq cage skewer) meaning you can barbecue 14 beef-burgers simultaneously (8 on the BarbeSkew II bbq).  As the burgers rotate, they cook in their own juices (effectively self-basting) meaning the burgers come off the BarbeSkew moist, evenly cooked, and with the lid down, the extra moisture in the burgers absorbs all the bbq smoke giving them the most phenomenal bbq smokey flavour.

For sausages, you can line up 2 packs of 8 thick cut sausages in each bbq cage skewer and so 32 sausages can be barbecued simultaneously (24 on the BarbeSkew II bbq).  Half way through barbecuing the sausages, we recommend you turn each sausage through ninety degrees, and this then gives you the perfect result for your barbecue sausages.

Fish should be cooked without foil, as once again the rotation of the bbq cage skewers ensures the fish retains its moisture whilst also allowing the extra moisture to absorb the bbq smoke.

For steak, there is no need to sear the meat.  Searing is generally needed when steaks are barbecued on a traditional barbecue and is needed to brown the surface to seal in the juices.  With the rotation effect of the BarbeSkew bbq cage skewers, there is no need to sear the steak, as the steaks retains all its moisture from the rotation effect.  Once again, the extra moisture in the steak absorbs the bbq smoke giving you the best tasting barbecue steak ever.  What everyone wants is a juicy piece of meat, and the BarbeSkew bbq with its bbq cage skewers gives you the best juicy steak ever.

Specifications

Note: Once you start to use the bbq cages skewers to barbecue your food, you start to think “inside the cage” as opposed to “outside the cage”.  By this, we mean you start to adapt things to fit inside the bbq cage skewer, as opposed to expecting everything you have previously barbecued on a traditional grill to fit within the bbq cage skewer.

Cleaning

At the start of 2011, a new accessory called the Cage Skewer Cleaning Stand will be available, where two cage skewers can be inserted standing upright in what is almost like an umbrella stand.  The stand can be filled with hot water and fairy liquid and then the bbq cage skewers left to soak for around 15 minutes.  After this period, the cages can be withdrawn at which point it the debris falls off the chrome plated finish within seconds by using a standard supermarket plastic washing up brush.

Recent Modifications

• 2009 – The spacing between the grid on the cage skewers has been reduced to meet the British Standard ensuring that thin sausages are less likely to fall through the lattice.
• 2010 – The two original clips have been replaced with one bulldog clip which is much easier to open and close.  This change is also due on the BarbeSkew II bbq cage skewers in 2011.
• 2010 – The bbq cage skewer hinges have been replaced with a piece of thick circular wire which is more robust that the previous hinges.  This change is also due on the BarbeSkew II bbq cage skewers in 2011.

The left hand side picture shows the evolution from ape to stone-age man who skewered his meat and rotated it manually over an open fire.

The middle picture depicts a traditional kettle barbecue – “In the old days, people had to actually stand next to their barbecue and turn the food manually leaving them stinking of smoke and keeping them away from all the party guests”

Finally on the right hand side we reach the BarbeSkew bbq: “Now, the future of barbecues is here. This motorised rotisserie bbq rotates the food constantly ensuring you create the best barbecue food time after time!”

By rotating the food slowly the BarbeSkew’s unique BBQ design prevents:

1. Burnt black food which is thought to be carcinogenic (increased risk of cancer).
2. Undercooked food which is pink in the middle which causes food poisoning. But in addition to this, there is a health benefit associated with BarbeSkewed BBQ food:

When compared to frying food in fat in a frying pan, cooking on the BarbeSkew BBQ means the fat drops off the food ensuring there is less fat content overall making the food healthier and better for your diet. So for example, beef burgers that come out of the BarbeSkew BBQ cage are:

1. Evenly brown the whole way round – they do not have the black lines associated with traditional barbecue (BBQ) grills and George Foreman grills.
2. Moist, with a cotton-wool like texture (due to the rotisserie – think of rotisserie chicken from a supermarket).
3. Have the best tasting most incredible BBQ flavour ever – barbecue flavour – not burnt flavour!

Cost – Charcoal BarbeSkews, and charcoal barbecues in general, are cheaper in price than gas models.

Flavour – Charcoal provides that traditional and delicious BBQ flavour. However, gas BarbeSkew models come equipped with flavouriser bars that sit above the gas burners. The bars heat up and act in the same way as charcoal, ensuring that you get that great BBQ flavour every time.

Natural wood smoking – This has always been one of the charcoal BarbeSkew’s plus-points, but wood smoking can now be achieved with gas BarbeSkews too.

Cons of Charcoal

Start-up time – Getting your BarbeSkew up and running will take longer with charcoal as the coals need time to heat up to the required temperature – this can take up to 40 minutes.

Lack of control – Once your charcoal BarbeSkew is lit you have little control over the heat produced. The coals will lose heat of their own accord, meaning that you need to keep a closer eye on the BarbeSkew, and if you are cooking a lot of food you may have to start the process again from scratch in order to maintain the right cooking temperature.

Price of fuel – If you plan to barbeque a lot over the summer, the cost of buying replacement coals can soon mount up.

Needs more of your attention – Charcoal barbecuing is more involving as you need to cook your food when the coals are at their hottest, watching out for drops in temperature, so you need to time your cooking just right.

Pros of Gas

Speed – Gas BarbeSkews light instantly, which means no waiting around for coals to heat up.

Control – With gas, you have total control over the heat produced. The temperature remains constant, making for safer cooking, as well as allowing you to cook for as long as you like.

BBQ flavour and wood smoking – Flavouriser bars ensure that a traditional BBQ flavour is achieved, and smoker boxes can be added so that wood smoking is as easy with gas as it is with charcoal.

Cons of Gas

Price – The initial cost for a gas BarbeSkew model, and gas barbecues generally, are more expensive.

Extra equipment – Although all BarbeSkew models come fitted with flavouriser bars as standard, if you want to achieve a wood smoking effect, you will have to purchase a separate smoker box.

Whichever BarbeSkew model you choose, you want to make sure that you are barbequing safely. Check out the British Gas safety website for all the advice you need to ensure that your barbecuing experience is a safe one, and for information on gas and electricity prices.

The whole idea for starting the business arose when Ed Wray actually went to someone else’s BBQ, and they had a small Greek Cypriot bbq that had rotating skewers. He thought the taste of the food that came from this BBQ was just phenomenal and asked where he could buy one to put in his back garden. The response was “you’ll never get your hands on one – they’re like Gold Dust”. And so it was the words “Gold Dust” that gave him the business idea!

The BarbeSkew is unique. There are no other barbecues (BBQs) on the market like it. There is effectively a gap in the market. The BarbeSkew is creating a new category/segment in the barbecue (BBQ) market, meaning it is a disruptive product that will create its own market share. And by being first to the market, the BarbeSkew has commanded all sales in this new market during 2008, and is set to continue in this way in 2009 and beyond.

In order to keep ahead of the competition and to complement the top-of-the-range charcoal and gas models, a half size and half price (charcoal) BarbeSkew II model has been launched in 2009 and looks set to capture a larger portion of the barbeque (BBQ) market.

To help raise the profile of the product, the PR campaign has so far included winning a new product award at the launch exhibition, the winning of a second award sponsored by the HSBC and the Daily Express and an appearance on the last series of Dragons’ Den. Further television PR will be targeted in 2009 along with business and product awards.